It had been a long-cherished ambition with me, if ever I married, to wed no one but a gentleman. I do not mean a gentleman in a mere parliamentary sense--I mean a man of birth, blood, and breeding. Respect my confidence--I have wedded the Honourable Vere Queckett.
[_Unconcernedly._] Ah! Is he a very nice man?
Nice! Mr. Bernstein, you are speaking of a brother of Lord Limehouse!
Oh, am I? Lord Limehouse--let me tink--he is very--very--vot you gall it?--very popular just now. Yah--yah--he is in the Bankruptcy Court!
[_With pride._] Certainly. So is Harold Archideckne Queckett, Vere's youngest brother. So is Loftus Martineau Queckett, Vere's cousin. They have always been a very united family. But, dear Mr. Bernstein, you have accidentally probed the one--I won't say fault--the one most remarkable attribute of these great Saxon Quecketts.
Oh yes, I see; you have to pay your husband's leedle pills.
Quite so--that is it. I have the honour of being employed in the gradual discharge of liabilities incurred by Mr. Vere Queckett since the year 1876. I am also engaged in the noble task of providing Mr. Queckett with the elaborate necessities of his present existence.
Ah, yes! Volumnia College is not equal to the grand duty imposed upon it. It is absolutely necessary that I should increase my income. In my despair at facing this genial season I wrote to you.
Proposing to turn your cabital voice to account, eh?
Quite so--and suggesting that I should sing in your new Oratorio..
What! When you have induced me to figure in a comic opera!
Yah, yah--but I have told you I have used the music of my new Oratorio for my new Gomic Opera.
Vill your goot gentleman be in the stalls to-night?
In the stalls--at the theatre! Hush, Mr. Bernstein, it is a secret from Vere. Lest his suspicions should be aroused by my leaving home every evening, I have led him to think that I am visiting a clergyman's wife at Hereford. I shall really be lodging in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
Nonsense! Vere is a gentleman; he would insist upon attending me to and from the theatre.
No--no. He is himself a graceful dancer. A common chord of sympathy would naturally be struck between him and the _coryphées_. Oh, there is so much variety in Vere's character.